Roberta M. Milgram

The Effect of the Yom Kippur War on Anxiety Level in Israeli Children

Peacetime and wartime anxiety levels in fifth and sixth grade Israeli boys and girls (N = 85) were compared as a function of sex, socioeconomic status, degree of war related stress, and self-concept. The Sarason General Anxiety Scale and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale had been administered to the children in May, 1973. The anxiety scale was readministered along with a war stress questionnaire during the Yom Kippur War in December, 1973. The general anxiety level of the children nearly doubled, with the children who reported the lowest peacetime anxiety levels reporting the highest wartime levels. Contrary to expectation, the rise in anxiety level was not related to personal war stress or to self-concept.

Personality Characteristics of Gifted Israeli Children.

Two groups of Israeli boys and girls in Grades 4-8, one intellectually gifted with a mean WISC IQ of (N = 182) and one nongifted (N = 310), were compared on several indices of personal-social adjustment. As predicted, the gifted group showed more positive self-concept, more internal locus of control, a lower level of general anxiety, and a still lower level of test anxiety. The few results on self-concept, unfavorable to the older gifted children, were attributed to a shift in the attitudes of gifted and nongifted children toward each other as they enter adolescence and their abilities and interest patterns diverge. Gifted girls were as well adjusted as gifted boys and better adjusted than nongifted girls.

Creative Thinking Ability: Domain Generality and Specificity

The relationship between domain-general and domain-specific creative thinking ability was examined in 3 studies using structural equation modeling. Learning disability, ethnicity, gender, and age/grade were included in the model to test their differential effects on general and specific creative thinking. In Study 1 (N = 130), learning disability, grade (high school, college), and gender were included in the model in addition to the 2 latent variables (general and specific creative thinking ability). In Study 2, with elementary students (N = 108), ethnicity, grade (4th, 5th, and 6th graders), and gender were included. In Study 3, with preschool children (N = 71), age and gender were included. In all 3 studies, domain-general and domain-specific creative thinking ability were found to be distinguishable yet related, and the former had a causal effect on the latter. Age/grade level, gender, ethnicity, and learning disability status discriminated the 2 constructs—general and specific creative thinking ability. We concluded that different life experiences (schooling and culture) may have stronger impacts on domain-specific creative thinking than domain-general creative thinking.

Creative Thinking and Creative Performance in Adolescents as Predictors of Creative Attainments in Adults: A Follow-Up Study after 18 Years.

In this article we present a theoretical formulation and empirical evidence to support our position that the exclusive use of formal, school‐oriented predictors of intelligence and school grades forfeits a great deal of talent. Moreover, we suggest that examining out‐of‐school activities in children helps find hidden abilities and reduce talent loss. The Milgram 4 X 4 Model of the structure of giftedness provides the rationale for expecting that measures of creative thinking and creative leisure activities may be more valid predictors of remarkable life accomplishments than intelligence and school grades. We present here the results of an 18‐year longitudinal study in which this prediction was investigated. Implications of the findings for the identification and enhancement of giftedness are discussed as well.

Leisure Activities in Adolescents As a Predictor of Occupational Choice in Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study

Leisure activities in children may be a valid predictor of talented accomplishment in adults (Milgram, 1989, 1990a, 1991, in press). Lei- sure activities are intrinsically motivated out-of-school hobbies and activities that young people do for their own enjoyment and by their own choice, and not in order to fulfill school requirements or to earn grades or credits. Even though they are not related to school they may be highly intellectual endeavors (e.g., computer programming, working out mathematical solutions, conducting scientific experi- ments, composing music). One reason why these activities may in- deed predict adult accomplishment is because their performance require not only intellectual abilities, but also task commitment, per- sistence, and other cognitive and personal-social attributes that strongly determine life outcomes. Super (1984), a leader in the area of career development, claims leisure activities can be valuable explora- tory experiences which provide the opportunity to experience occupa- tionally-related activities. A series of innovative studies of intrinsically motivated creative activities and accomplishments in adolescence were conducted by

Academic Versus Creative Abilities in Mathematics: Two Components of the Same Construct?

ABSTRACT: Structural equation modeling, hitherto used to examine unidimensional theoretical models only, was used to investigate 2 dimensions, abilities and levels, simultaneously. Good evidence for the validity of conceptualizing 2 types of mathematical ability, 1 academic and 1 creative, each at 4 hierarchical levels, was established in 10th- and 11th-grade students (N = 1,090). IQ scores, representing general academic ability, predicted academic, but not creative, ability in mathematics. Creative thinking predicted creative, but not academic, ability in mathematics. These findings led to an innovative approach to identifying mathematical abilities and provided reliable and valid psychometric tools to make it possible. Based on two new instruments, teachers can differentiate curricula and individualize instructional strategies to match each students needs.

Group versus Individual Administration in the Measurement of Creative Thinking in Gifted and Nongifted Children

MILGRAM, ROBERTA M., and MILGRAM, NORMAN A. Group versus Individual Administration in the Measurement of Creative Thinking in Gifted and Nongifted Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 563-565. The effect of group versus individual administration of an abbreviated Wallach and Kogan Creativity Battery was investigated in gifted (N = 182) and nongifted (N = 310) Israeli children in grades 4-8. Group administration exercised an adverse effect on creativity in nongifted children, producing creativity scores which were confounded with intelligence and lower than scores obtained in individual administration. Form of administration had no effect on the creativity-intelligence relationship or on the level of creativity scores of gifted children. Results were explained in terms of a requirement of average intellectual ability for the production of creativity distinct from intelligence in individual administration and a requirement of above average intellectual ability in group administration.

Dimensions of locus of control in children.

A multidimensional measure of locus of control, which included three dimensions of content, time, and orientation toward success-failure outcomes, was administered to non-gifted (N = 298) and gifted (N = 166) Israeli children in Grades 4 through 8. Content was measured in three important settings in the childs life: school, home, and neighborhood. The time dimension referred to the difference between assuming responsibility for events of the present and past versus the expression of competence to affect future outcomes. Internal consistency and reliabilities of the new instrument were adequate, especially for the Future Scale, and the three dimensions were empirically distinguishable. Relationships were found between locus of control and age, scholastic achievement, and personality variables.

Predicting Imaginative Play in Preschool Children

as original problem solving with ideational fluency as an essential component (Guilford, 1956, 1967; Mednick, 1962; Wallach & Kogan, 1965). These investigators and others (Getzels and Jackson, 1962; Torrance, 1974) developed measures of original problem-solving based on ideational fluency. These measures are frequently used in research designed to validate the aforementioned formulations of creativity (Milgram, Milgram, Rosenbloom, & Rabkin, 1978; Ward, 1968, 1969). In these tests the verbal and visual stimuli are considered the problems and the subjects’verbal responses the solutions. Considerable evidence for the

Leisure Activities in Career Guidance for Gifted and Talented Adolescents: A Validation Study of the Tel-Aviv Activities Inventory.

Leisure activities may predict adult accomplishment better than conventional predictors such as intelligence or school grades because their performance requires not only intellectual abilities, but also task commitment, persistence, and other cognitive and personal-social attributes that determine life outcomes. Research on the leisure activities of young gifted children has been sparse in part because of the lack of psychometric instruments designed for use with children. The construct validity of the Tel-Aviv Activities Inventory, a measure of leisure activities specifically designed for children and adolescents was investigated in 934 junior/senior high school students. The 62 activities inventory items were entered for factor analysis. The 10-factor maximum likelihood solution with varimax rotation was selected, resulting in extracting factors most similar to the hypothesized factor structure. The results indicated that the instrument may be useful for career counseling with gifted and talented children. Recommendations for the revision of the current edition of the instrument are suggested.